Newspaper Final By Amber LeBron
Article #1
Working towards success Cycle Ending 4.5
High school is a place for students to spread their wings and find what they love to do and pursue it with their best interest. Joining clubs has always been a growing fashion among many people when they enter high school, gaining experience and testing the playing field for what they love. The students today commonly join as many clubs and sports possible to gain the sight of colleges. Admissions, nowadays, take how much time the student has partaken in things other than their normal school hours as of late, and it is particularly appealing to have participation and experience under your belt. “I joined theatre to aid in my acceptance to a college in New York, where I plan on majoring in Theatre,” junior Brianna Rodrigues said. Others also join clubs for fun, not necessarily attempting to gain opportunities for the future. “The atmosphere of doing what you love to do gets rid of the stress of school and lets me focus on something other than homework,” junior Haleigh Patterson said. These activities will often have times set for after school and during lunch. This can leave many pupils ridden with backed up work and not a lot of time to finish it. The rushing home to do work and allowance of time can roam along a student’s schedule and can easily become blocked with the requirement of a meeting or practice. “Many practices can take up to four hours, and I get home around seven because of this,” sophomore Matthew Gray said, “It leaves me with only a few hours to actually get work done, which isn’t a lot of time with the amount of work I am given throughout the day.” Students still take the time out of their day to do these activities, no matter how strenuous, because it allows them to gain experience in a more hands-on manner, if the activity is something they desire to do after they graduate. “I really love what I do and I want to do it for the rest of my life. It really helps to form this aspiration up as early as possible, especially for the career that I plan on heading into,” Rodrigues said. No matter the feeling towards the activity that these students participate in, the answer is clear. Whether it is for college acceptance, experience, or just mere fun, extracurricular activities, while they can blockade their schedule, are an excellent way to excel at what you love doing.
Reflection This article was so different for what I wrote when I had my section changed, with this being the first article I wrote in a LQTQ-esque style. It made me feel like I was writing a hard news article again, which felt boring at first until I realized I wasn’t only making it just straight facts, but working in a manner that didn’t me fall asleep every time I pushed my finger to the keyboard. I was able to add student input and elaborate more, while giving a lighter sense to the events, not being restricted to such a drool-inducing topic that people have done 20 times. I was so proud of that, and being able to realize that I was doing what I actually wanted to do before with my writing, but I was unclear to the option of different sections at the time. I was proud of how I took something that I would have had before that could have out even a 5-year-old with ADHD to sleep, and turned it into a butterfly that showed the personality of not only me, but of the UHS students. I felt like the importance of this article to me wa that I was able to step back and reflect on how I worked in hard news and tried to do that, but make it more original and like how I would think, rather than just facts and boring sentences. I feel like I could have made this a lot stronger by putting a sense of confidence into myself when writing this, because I remember shying away from saying all that I wanted to say because I was afraid of stepping boundaries and breaking rules, but now I know that some of the basics have to be bent a little to make something truly outstanding.
Article #2
Survival of the scholars Cycle Ending 4.5
1.Organize a planner You can find plenty of inexpensive planners at any store in town, so finding one will be the easy part. Now comes the hard part, get rid of it. You heard me. It’s gone already. You see, the point of a planner is to keep you organized, but at this point in the year you aren’t very organized and there is very little hope of saving it. The planner is just going to sit at the bottom of your bag until you decided to dump everything out and find it among the many gum wrappers. 2. Coffee is your best friend You always think the people you hang out with are your friends. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Say hello to your most loyal pal across the courtyard, coffee. This caffeinated drink will have you running strong in the early mornings. Sure, real friends are cool and all, but will they be there to shake you out of slumber at 5 a.m.? Probably not. Accepting the fate of relying on a cup o’ Joe is a step in surviving the long days of school that you will surely encounter. 3. Wake up on time Ignoring the alarm clock and hitting snooze isn’t a myth amongst the many people who set times across the world. Everyone wishes for “five more minutes”, and when we are given five minutes, it suddenly turns into ten. The easiest way is to annoy yourself out of bed. No matter which way you use a device; it is easier to shake you from your sweet dreams. Using techniques like setting alarms way before you need to get up so that you can become less groggy before you actually get out of bed may work for you. This can work for some, but others are known to need more drastic measures, like placing your phone across the room so that you have to get up when you have to shun the blaring beeps from your ears, which can also help if you have the problem of staying up on your phone in bed too late, eliminating the close proximity of you and your phone. Either way, waking up early enough will allow you to not have to run out of your house with shoelaces flying and backpacks pouring. 4. Get to class on time Walking into class late can earn a referral for most students after a few times of tardiness. Being in your seat before the bell can make life easier by giving you time to prepare yourself for class and grab your binder or even check your phone one last time before a lecture starts. The sight across campus of students bustling to class includes most of the population of the school, but you also see conglomerations of peers who chat during class transitions which usually break up at the last second possible, leaving them caught up in tardy sweeps or missing out on the beginning of their classes, which can offset how you learn and affects how the teacher may lecture for the day. So, getting to class is vital to getting your education at its fullest.
Article (Continued) 5. Accept the fact that you will never get enough sleep Between meetings for clubs, homework and even jobs, for some people, you aren’t going to have enough time to sleep. Since studying for finals is now a big thing that comes with this time of the school year, you will be up for many hours and losing z’s in massive amounts. Knowing you are going to walk around like a zombie for quite some time will prepare you for the tiresome days. You will also notice the relation between you and other students with this topic, speaking of what time everyone went to sleep and what assignment and teacher kept their pencils in hand way past the time they would prefer to have slept. 6. Find comfort in the papers of your books When you do sleep, it will most likely be in the midst of your hardcore studying. Finding sanctuary in these not-so-comfy sheets of paper, rather than sheets of blankets, will save you the time from getting up to go lay down in your actual bed. Skip that step and save time and make your desk your new bed, because that’s the exact place you are going to be for a very long time. But don’t forget to clean your bed every morning, by shoving all of the papers off of your desk and into your bag as you rush out the door to go to school. 7. Inhale and exhale Breathing is just essential, as we are all taught in our oh-so-stressful biology classes. Time is flying, as we know it and taking a step back to breathe and clear our minds of the chaotic clutter will relax our bodies and help us move on. When you are stressing and on the verge of hyperventilating from a busy schedule, take a deep breath in and let everything out as you release that breath, as it helps you know that it won’t be that hard and everything will calm soon enough.
Reflection In this article, I feel like it was my best work in terms of “how-to”’s, where I took a more humorous approach to the topic. I really enjoyed being able to reflect how I felt about “surviving school” in the best way I know, by making light of it and turn problems into puns. I am very proud of how I stepped out of my shell for this one and made it more about myself instead of trying to direct it to a specific audience that I don’t normally fit in. It helped me in the sense of knowing exactly what I wanted and what I could do because I know myself more than I know a pack of athletes, per say. I felt like this article did demonstrate good journalism writing because of the personality that flows through it, by using my own style of wording and humor to make it my own, which most journalists find in their writing by tone. I felt like this displayed my own sense of tone in a big form and I really found that to be a good journalistic quality to have, as I learned a while back with our bi weekly assignments, where we analyzed other pieces of journalism and news. If I had to change anything in this article, it would be to change the length. I feel like I could have added so much more to make it even more witty, which I feel would definitely make it stronger in the sense of having an even more defined writing style through the tone, while also making it more like a professional article, with the word count reaching higher.
Article #3
10 things before the big test Cycle Ending 1.15
Everyone has that aching headache that just persists until you can’t contain yourself anymore. Tests are possibly the worst stress a student of this day and age can have. Relieving this stress can be a wonderful way to clear your mind and let the pavement to success begin. 1. Yoga Practicing yoga can definitely help relieve the tension all around your body both physically and emotionally. Yoga stretches your body relieving muscles of knots and any other points of pressure. It also releases feel good chemicals in your brain making you feel more relaxed and at peace, which makes your mind forget about the stress and focus on the workout. 2. Sleep/naps The body of an average person doesn’t work the same when tired as it does when alert and fully awake. Sleeping for small amounts of time can boost your energy, allowing your mind to work as efficiently as possible. So c’mon! Catch some z’s! 3. Adult coloring books/drawing As children, opening a book and a pack of crayons to scribble on was an activity that melted away any worry and was lots of fun. Using this to relieve testing stress can allow you to focus on the color schemes and less about how much you have studied. Working on a page or two every once in awhile throughout the studying process can clear your mind and reset the stress you may have gained from reading the text on the paper. 4.Plan ahead Set time aside everyday to study as soon as you know the date of the test so you don’t have to cram two days before the exam. Planning out when you will study, whether it is 15 minutes a day or an hour, can make a big difference in the organization of your studying habits. Helping the organization of time allows you to focus the material, rather than trying to figure out the next time you will pick up your book. 5. Eat healthy Eating healthy can be essential for preparing for a big test. Eating junk food and drinking coffee is a bad idea because it ends up making you groggy and raising your heart rate. Eating vegetables, fruits, and drinking water, however, helps clear both your system and mind. Healthy foods in the morning especially help you wake up and become more alert and ready for the test ahead. 6. Study in groups Chances are you will not be the only person stressing and wondering how they will pass this test. So go out, find people in the same class as you and create mini study groups. Studying with more than one person can lower levels of stress and bring some fun to studying, making it more enjoyable and better for memorization. 7. Take a break Let your mind take a breather and let go for a bit, whether it’s 30 minutes during studying or a day within a month of constant repetition. Play some video games, read books, etc. Do something you enjoy to get your mind off of the stress. 8.Listen to music Sometimes you just need to take your nearest device and listen to your favorite tunes. Listening to music helps lower anxiety levels making your brain focus on the music more than the test, while letting you study in a breeze.
Article (Continued) 9. Flashcards Flashcards are a quick and simple way for you to review lessons on anything. They are condensed down into one small paper, making it a lot less intimidating and stressful to remember. 10. Just breathe. The stress of a huge test can really get a student down. Try and take a moment to step back and take a few deep breaths to release as much stress as possible. Taking breaths can help lower your heart rate giving you more of a relaxed state and lowering blood pressure. Next time you hit the books to study, think of these tips so you’ll feel less like this: And more like this: Good luck on all of your tests and remember that you can do it!
Reflection In this article, I felt like I really submersed myself into my feature writing, really taking it in and testing the waters and findig out what worked for me and what didn’t. After the switch fro Hard News to Features, I felt like I was finally seeing the change in my writing that I was hoping to see in the beginning of the year, but was dissatisfied with the turnout. I was very proud of this article when I wrote it, because I felt as if I was finally developing my own style that I could rely on and think “Hey, that’s what I like and what I want to work with and improve.” And improve, I did. A lot of my writing befor ethis was boring and mundane, but in here I finally felt proud enough to say that my work was different and distinguishble against others. I felt like this piece started to relfect good journalism writing because I feel that it really shows my roots of writing and how I have grown alongside it. It shows the importance of growth in the year from where I started with vocabulary that, even though it was higher than that of an average student, was still pretty boring. Here, you can see my branching out with new ideas and building upon them to make them something new, which really made me happy to see the end result that came with the final draft. When review this and reflecting, I really wish that I could go back and strengthen this through the style of sentences, because even though I am proud of seeing my growth, I felt like it still could have been better, and even now that is something I want to keep developing.
Personal Essay Prompt: What do you take with you when you leave home? Keys. Check. Wallet. Check. Phone. Check. Did I lock the doors? Let me check again. Did I put a pack of gum in my bag? Sure did. Now, where did that bag of procrastination go? Eh, I can find it when I get back home. Oh wait, here it is under the stress I cause myself because of it. Everyday it seems that I am holding off on something more and more, ad as I step into my car everyday, it follows right along, trailing behind me and squealing in my ear that I should just leave what I am supposed to do until 10 at night, every night. And when I say every night, I mean every night. Heck, I am even procrastinating now, attempting to finish off a one act that I plan on turning in the next day, after putting it on a shelf for a year and thinking “I can do that later, it’s no problem.” I’m going to stop past me right now and point out how idiotic that choice was, because I have had writer’s block for the past two months and that one act should have been done a long time ago. Note to self: never do that again, it was kind of stupid. I should really reprimand myself, but I could probably do that later anyways when I really need to (which is now but my mind is telling me it isn’t, so I’m going to believe it). I have been pushing things off since middle school, only to remind myself when I am in the middle of the dairy section at publix and I look at the milk and make the connection to pasteurization, which then leads me to think of that culinary project on dairy that is due in two days that I have only collected definitions for. Procrastination is always with me when I leave home, kind of like a cloud that spits burdens on you throughout the day that you just end up ignoring as much as you can, but in the end you realize you are soaked with a whole bunch of worry and regret, leading you to question why you didn’t just pay attention for once. And it doesn’t just stop at school work, procrastination not only leaves my home to come to school with me, but it also follows me through my daily life. Having a simple task like getting a bathing suit for the summer works its way out. I go to Kohl’s and intend on walking out with a bathing suit, but then I see the makeup and figure, “I need this bronzer and eyeliner more than the bathing suit today.” In this case, I settle on buying it in a week, when I get more money, but the I am cutting it close to when I am going to a water park, which (BINGO) requires that bathing suit that I pushed off for another week. But guess what? (Wait for it).
… I wait to buy the bathing suit… At this point I’m internally screaming, because I did this to myself once again, causing stress for things that I could have solved. This has also happened on multiple occasions in which Star Wars was heavily involved. It’s as if procrastination is a cliff that I constantly hang by the fingers off of. I do this a lot and then swear on my favorite candy bar (which is a Hershey’s cookies and Cream Bar *winks at all of my friends*) that I won’t ever push things off again, but then my next project comes along, and my bed just looks so much more comfortable than sitting at my desk and knocking the assignment out of the way on the first try. It’s the memory foam that gets me, really. I mean, I try to resist the urge that the oh-so-divine bed sheets compel me towards, but I can’t help but to jump in and ignore all of the problems I am soon to have because of the sweet sensation of relaxation that I treasure dearly. I never knew bliss would kick me hard in the end, but procrastination taught me just that, and I wish I never had to experience it and I could just push off feeling stressed, but that is also procrastination. It is really a never-ending horrid cycle that always comes back to bite, and it bites hard. The heavy amounts of procrastination following me out of my house wherever I go will soon bite me, but no matter how comfortable my soft pillows and warm blankets may seem, i usually end up regretting giving into that desire, inheriting so many last-minute assignments that I usually try to produce into the best quality that I can, earning me A’s for most of my high school career. But, even if I know how to avoid procrastination, I won’t enjoy actually having to do so in college and in my full-on adult life. The thought of having to do work on time is a bit putrid to me and makes my insides churn with displeasure and discontent to what my future will hold, and I certainly don’t look forward to that aspect of what is to come soon. So, therefore I am even attempting lately to defeat the twins of procrastination and finish what I start as soon as possible, even starting with this very essay, completing it as soon as possible (Hopefully future me pulls through and completes this one task, as it is all I am asking of myself). So while I carry procrastination now, it will soon have to step out of my bag, which carries the things I use on the daily, leaving me for most of my adulthood. This is, hopefully, what actually happens, in which I stop bringing procrastination with me wherever I go, and actually growing to where it can just stay at home and all I do have to bring with me is chapstick and a few other essentials.
Thank you for an amazing 2015-2016 year!